Dark side of courage
by The Threat
Summary: [Magiranger] After the fall of Infershia, the surface world has returned to peace... or has it?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "Magiranger" is owned by Toei Company

* * *

Since the fall of Infershia, the world has been left in peace. Since Sphinx and Nai and Mare (a.k.a. Vancuria, for both of them) are making the underground a better place to live, not only have they thereby provided a job for Kai (a.k.a. Magired), they also managed to get Hades beasts of any type to become better beings. And even though mere months have passed since the fall, it is pretty clear that the Magirangers have changed a lot. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean their adventure has stopped!

It started when the Ozu family was having one of their many traditional celebrations. It all started very quiet... so to speak. Either Houka had another boyfriend, Makito was having trouble with Erico-chan, Urara was still trying to find her place in Magitopia, Kai was trying to work on his football career (despite all his work in the underworld), Tsubasa and boxing,... it started relatively quiet.

What really caused a lot of commotion was when Mandora Boy made his entrance.

"OH NOOO...!!! IT'S TERRIBLE!!!!! IT'S SO TERRIBLE!!!!!!!" he shouted while jumping around the dining room.

Makito only just managed to catch the too energetic mandrake, forced him to calm and asked: "What's so terrible?"

"Ju... just look at the mirror in the hidden room!" he still panicked.

Everyone was dying to see what he was talking about. The whole family ran to the hidden room, and looked into the mirror, as they were told. What they saw was indeed quite a shock.

Tsubasa was the first to say anything at all: "General Branken?"

"Didn't we kill him before!?" Kai screamed.

"You did once believe that Miyuki-san was killed too! Maybe it's the same here!" Hikaru said.

Particularly Urara wasn't very happy about this being said: "How dare you even compare that with this?!"

"It doesn't matter how he got here!" Miyuki tried to get to their minds, "Branken is here now!"

"He looks different!" Isamu noticed, "Normally he looked like part man part machine! But now he is that part machine is gone!"

Kai couldn't stand here and wait any longer: "Let's go and get him this time!"

He turned around and left the room. His brothers and sisters followed him, including his brother-in-law. Soon enough, they could be found in the forest where the mirror had spotted Branken.

The five siblings took out there magiphones, and called: "Mahou Henshin! Maagi Magi Majiro!"

Hikaru followed shortly after: "Tenkyuu Henshin! Goolu Golu Goludiiro!"

The six of them were ready to attack, but Branken seemed to be one step ahead of them. He pulled some kind of a rope, upon which two logs appeared from either side of the Magirangers, about ready to fall on them. Magigreen used his magic to stop them from impact. But this caused enough distraction so that Branken could use one of his own magic spells on the six of them. It didn't take long before all six of them were down. Defeated by an old adversary, in such a seemingly simple way. Not only was this humiliating, it was also bad news to the world.

"Give it up, magicians!" Branken told them, "There's no way you can defeat the new and improved me!"

He laughed evilly. But doing this helped the six to regain strength. So they got back to their feet, and attacked him. He only needed one sway of his sword to take all six of them down.

"You keep it up this way, and you'll be the first to die by my blade!" Branken said triumphantly.

That's when something completely out of the ordinary happened. Something invisible seemed to grab hold of him, pucked him up, and pulled him down the hill. Like Branken, the Magirangers had no clue as to what just happened.

They got up, and looked down the hill. The surprise was big when they saw another magician down there. He wore a suit like they did, though without a cape. He also wore some kind of an armor, but unlike Wolzard's this one looked smaller, lighter and easier to move in. What was mostly peculiar was the fact that his suit was plain black. Even the M on his suit didn't have it's own color.

The magician spoke: "You are not supposed to be here."

"I know I'm supposed to be dead!" Branken made no effort to deny that fact, "But I'm back now!"

"Yes!" the magician said, "By accident."

The six couldn't believe what they were hearing.

The magician down there kept talking: "You weren't supposed to be revived."

"But I am!" he said as he got up, "And there's nothing you can..."

Again he seemed to be in some kind of grip. The magician was pointing his wand to Branken, which was likely the cause of the grip. He said: "You are not going to tell me what I can or can't do!"

Like playing with a model airplane, the magician started to swing Branken around. Up and down, left and right, forward and backward, until Branken had enough of this three dimensional world. The magician's wand changed into a scythe. He was about to attack Branken with it, but then he heard someone say: "You've seen that? How did he do that?"

The magician turned his face up the hill. He seemed to be as surprised to see the six as much as the six were surprised to see him. This gave Branken a chance to recover and attack. The magician made one quick move with his scythe. He sliced Branken with it, after which he blew into pieces.

The six were more than surprised to see this. Magired was the first to talk: "You could take him down all by yourself?! You must be some really..."

"Who are you?!" he called. He sounded a little panicked though.

Magishine seemed to know the right thing to say: "Naturally! We should introduce ourselves!"

Magigreen began: "The howling earth element! Magician of the green! Magigreen!"

Magipink followed: "The blowing wind element! Magician of the pink! Magipink!"

Before Magiblue could say anything, the magician shouted: "STOP!!!"

Neither one of the six understood why he freaked out like that. He remarked: "You people make necromancy obsolete."

Only Magishine seemed to understand his remark: "Are you saying you're a necromancer?"

"Yes." was his short answer.

"But that's forbidden magic!" Magishine added.

"So what if it is? It's not like the police would arrest me or anything!" the magician said flatly.

He turned around, and walked away.

"What an arrogant git!" Kai said.

* * *

Note: the black magician is mine


	2. Chapter 2

Back in the secret room, all six had their say on the black magician they've met.

"Making netronomir obsolete..." Kai grumbles.

"He performed spells we don't even know!" Makito said, almost complaining.

"He never even said anything when he performs them! How did he do that?" Urara wondered.

Tsubasa, however, had another question: "What exactly is necromancy?"

"It's a complex art. Basically, it is a mean to bring the dead back to life." Isamu answered, "It's also supposed to be forbidden!"

Hikaru was the first to answer Isamu, or Bragel: "Bragel! Is it at all even possible someone is using forbidden magic without anyone noticing?"

"That is unlikely to happen!" Isamu answered.

"That doesn't mean it's not possible!" Tsubasa said.

"All there is I can do is notify Magiel. See what she knows about him." Isamu added.

"What are you all so fed up about?" Houka asked everyone.

Everyone looked at her as if she just compared the devil with a stuffed animal.

"How can you say such a thing!" Kai shouted, "He revived Branken, and who knows..."

"He didn't mean to!" Houka interrupted, "Don't you remember him saying that?"

Kai was hard to convince otherwise: "How could he not mean to do that?"

"When was the last time a spell of yours worked as it should?" Houka remarked.

"Necromancy is a very sophisticated form of magic." Mandoraboy said, "There's no telling what might happen if you keep performing it!"

"Someone must have had to much free time on his hands. Nyau?" Smoky remarked.

"Or he must have been practicing it long before you children became magicians!" Miyuki just realized.

Obviously, none of them had ever even considered that possibility. If someone is experted on the field of such a complex form of magic and at the same time even learned to cast any spells at all non-verbally, he must have been around a lot longer than any of them could even begin to imagine.

"So how do we beat such guy?" Kai asked.

"What?" Houka seemed pissed at Kai asking that, "He's so much more powerful than we are, and that's why he has to die?"

"Like Mandoraboy said, there's no telling what might happen if he's on the loose!" Kai replied.

"I agree with you, Houka." Makito said, "But Kai's right!"

"I am?" he seemed surprised to hear this, "Of course I am!"

Explaining why, Makito said: "He said he revived Branken by accident. Which means he doesn't have any control over the powers he has!"

"Too dangerous to be on the loose." Tsubasa agreed.

Miyuki had something else in mind: "Maybe it would work better if we'd all sleep on it for now. Maybe tomorrow we'll have a better view on this."

What the Magirangers didn't realize, however, was that in the meantime, whatever was left of Branken seemed to move on it's own, attaching themselves to other bits and pieces of other Hades Beast(man)s they could find. After a while, an entire army of walking corpses arose from woods and the mountains.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, there was a discussion among the Magirangers about that black magician, again.

"What do you mean 'Magiel doesn't know'?" was Kai's response to Isamu's statement.

"There's no Heavenly Saint that's supporting necromancy, so nobody knows how he got his powers." Isamu added.

Makito had another thought: "What about Infershia? Could they be providing him with..."

"If so..." Hikaru answered, "Sphinx or Nai and Mae would know!"

"This man must be way smarter than all of you put together, Nyau!" Smoky remarked.

Before Kai could express his thoughts about that remark, Urara had a more important question: "What can we expect from such a man?"

"From a necromancer..." Isamu started to answer, "... we can expect to see more dead people walking. But from somebody that nobody knows at all, we can expect everything!"

"Like what?" everybody asked, in their own way.

"I don't know!" Isamu said, "That's what makes it even more scary."

"For all we know..." Miyuki added, "... we might have met him once before. He could be one of our best friends!"

There was another thought none of the magicians had thought about. Makito thought it to be necessary to say: "He might be one of your boyfriends, Houka!"

Before she could show her brother just how displeased she was to hear him say that, Tsubasa reminded him: "This is serious, Makito!"

That's when all five siblings started to argue, without even listening to their parents or their sensei.

Hikaru asked Isamu: "If not from the Heavenly Saints, where does he draw his powers from?"

"I don't know." Isamu answered, "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Hikaru asked curiously.

"The legends tell about five magicians who built Magitopia. Nobody knew anything about them, nor do they know how they managed to forge courage into magic. Maybe there was another magician that the legends never mentioned."

"Why would they not mention him?" Miyuki wondered.

"There can be numerous reasons to that." Isamu sighed.

Mandoraboy suddenly made himself heard: "Oh no!!! OH NOOOO!!!!!!!"

All eight of them were surprised to hear him shriek like that. If they didn't know any better, he nearly sounded as if somebody just pulled him out of his pot. They all ran to him, asked him what's wrong. As an answer he pointed to the mirror.

The whole city was in an uproar, when a whole army of zombies were attacking the living.

"What is he trying to prove?" Makito was the first to have a say on this.

"Doesn't matter! Nii-chan, nee-chan! We'll show him we won't let him get away with this!"

"We definately won't!" Tsubasa added.

"Wait!" Houka seemed a little disturbed by this, "How can you be so sure he's behind this?"

Isamu agreed: "She's right. You shouldn't jump to such conclusions."

"Are we going to stay here and argue about that?" Urara spoke, "Or are we going to help these people?"

Silently, they all agreed. All eight of them took off, to save the city from the living dead.


	4. Chapter 4

This is nothing that the town had never experienced before, being attacked by monsters, and yet this is nothing they'll ever get used to or seem to be prepared for. When abominating, jigsawed monsters enter the city, everybody runs for their lives, children lose their parents in all the commotion, cars and buildings and others are being destroyed,... only this time, those who couldn't make it out in time got turned into one of them instantly, which if possible made the attack get worse every second it lasts.

The eight magicians arrived at the scene. Once they were sure nobody was watching them, they drew out their magiphones.

The magicians of the five colors called: "Chou Mahou Henshin! Maagi Magi Magi Magiro!"

Shorly followed by their mother: "Mahou Henshin! Maagi Magi Magiro!"

Hikaru was next: "Tenkyuu Henshin! Goolu Golu Goludiiro!"

Then came Isamu: "Chou Tenkyuu Henshin! Goolu Golu Golu Goludiiro!"

The eight of them tried to impress their enemy with their appearance.

"The howling earth element! Magician of the Green! Legend Magigreen!"

"The blowing wind element! Magician of the Pink! Legend Magipink!"

"The shaking water element! Magician of the Blue! Legend Magiblue!"

"The galloping thunder element! Magician of the Yellow! Legend Magiyellow!"

"The burning flame element! Magician of the Red! Legend Magired!"

"The sparkling ice element! Magician of the White! Magimother!"

"The shining solar element! Tenkuu Hero! Magishine!"

"The ferocious raging fire element! Tenkuu Yuusha! Wolzard Fire!"

Kai finished this with saying: "Changing overflowing courage into magic!"

All together: "Mahou Sentai! Magiranger!"

Despite all the trouble, none of the walking dead seemed at all impressed. In fact, they didn't even appear to have noticed their presence at all.

"Let's send them back to where they came from!" Kai called to everyone. And they all engaged into battle.

It didn't take long before the Magirangers (for those who could) didn't need to use their legend powers. The living dead were a lot easier to defeat than they were when they were alive.


	5. Chapter 5

All the elements they had at their disposal were used to pin down all of the dead. There were about a countless amount of them, but nothing they couldn't handle with their magic. Until...

Wolzard was about to attack with his sword, but something invisible stopped him. He appeared as though time just stopped for him.

"Father!" Magiyellow called, "What's wrong?"

"I... can't... move!" he answered.

"Hikaru!" Magiblue screamed. Magishine appeared to be experiencing the same problem.

Suddenly, they could move again. But instead of continuing to ward off the dead, they attacked the family. Not one of the other six understood this behavior.

"Isamu..." Magimother tried to talk to him.

"I... don't... want... to do... this...!" he managed to say.

For some reason, the two of them had become puppets, controlled by an unknown force. It didn't take long before it became clear that hurting the others wasn't their priority. They were drawn together, so that both Magishine and Wolzard could create a force field that kept them all in place.

"Father!" Magired yelled, "Stop this!"

"I... wish... I... could!" he replied.

"Now it's time to get serious!" another voice said.

It wasn't a voice none of them hadn't heard before, though. They all recognized the black magician they saw earlier. They were all screaming things at him, but he didn't listen. He immediately attacked the dead people.

There was something peculiar about the way he fought. He didn't actually try to hurt them. He used some magic to lift up one of them and crash him into others. He used his scythe to beat some of them down, or to draw them into certain directions. The only thing that's clear about what he's doing is the fact that he didn't kill any of them, assuming they weren't already dead.

"That guy doesn't even know that scythe can actually cut people!" Magired remarked

Magigreen was the first to realize what the magician really did: "He's separating the turned people from the dead monsters!"

"What is he up to?" Magipink wondered.

"Does he know what's wrong with Hikaru and father?" Magiblue thought out loud.

"He doesn't really talk much, does he." seemed to be the most important thing on Magiyellow's mind.

"That's some techniques he's using." Magimother realized.

The other two would've said anything at all, if they were given the freedom of doing anything at all.

At some point, the black magician had done what Magigreen had described. He indeed separated them. With the humans on one side, and the monsters at the other, he smashed the sharp end of his scythe into the ground, in the direction of the turned people. Whatever magic it was that had them turned, suddenly left them, and they all turned back to normal. The magic on the other hand got absorbed by the magician's scythe.

"Go away!" he told them.

Neither of them thought he needed to tell them twice. As they went, the black magician turned to the monsters. The monsters had already started to gather around, but not to stratigise their next attack or something like that. They seemed to blow themselves apart, only to rejoin again, in such a way that all of the dead were becoming one giant monster.

The black magician was not impressed. His scythe turned back into a wand, with which he pointed to the ground. A flashing green beam came out, causing the ground to split open, to reveal a huge zeppelin. As the monsters were still becoming one, the magician ran into the zeppelin, into the cockpit, and made it start transforming. The zeppelin's compartment, along with half of the balloon to which it hung, had formed the robot, whereas the other half of the balloon became a shield.

Meanwhile, none of the Magirangers had any idea of what they were witnessing. Each of them had a different opinion. One thought it was cool to see this giant robot, whereas the other thought he is too weak to learn to change into Magika himself.

The giant monster had finished himself. He stood eye to eye with the black magician's robot.

"It's about time Hendenberg's used in battle." the magician said as he made the robot make it's first move.

The monster attacked, but this was dodged with Hendenberg's shield. He immediately used the shield to attack the monster, and keep him at a distance.

"Let's see you get a taste of you're own medicine." the magician said.

Suddenly, the power he had absorbed from the dead people earlier seemed to be collecting itself inside the shield. Not long after that, he held up the shield as if it were a rifle gun. It shot a blinding white beam to the monster, evidently resulting into it's destruction.


	6. Chapter 6

When there was nothing left of the giant monster, Wolzard and Magishine turned down the force field and fell down themselves, relaxing from the forced labor. The black magician jumped out of his zeppelin, and was about to walk away. Unfortunately Magipink had to follow him.

"That was incredible!" she called at him, "Thank you for..."

He turned around and pointed his wand at her, exclaiming: "Don't come any closer!"

Magired came to join in on this conversation: "Don't you talk to her like that!"

"Did I ask for your opinion, red guy?!" the black magician answered.

"Red guy?" Magired repeated.

"It is partly your fault the dead were walking anyway!" the magician added.

"Our fault?" Magired couldn't believe he's hearing this.

"That other guy yesterday," he explained, "I had to use complete concentration to take him down. But when you lot showed up, I got distracted, so it backfired!"

"Wait a minute!" Magigreen shouted as he joined them, "Are you trying to make us look like the bad guys?"

"Give me one good reason not to." the magician answered, "If you hadn't even shown up today, nobody would've died either! I would have turned them back into their own selves, and let them run to safety. You didn't feel that was necessary, so I noticed! You just killed everyone who was under the spell of the dead!"

Magired couldn't take any more of this, and he ran to the magician. Magishine and Wolzard stopped him however.

"What are you doing?" Magired asked them.

"I... I don't know!" Magishine answered.

"Being dead doesn't work into your advantage, does it!?" the magician laughed.

Everybody opened their eyes widely, as well as their mouths. They nearly forgot that this guy is a necromancer, as well as the fact that both Magishine and Wolzard did die once.

"You..." Magipink tried to say, "You made them... do those things?"

"If you folks don't mind, I have other things to do." he said ignoring what Magipink just said, after which he turned around and walked away again.

"Kid! What's the matter with you?" a voice not so unfamiliar to the Magirangers said.

Clearly, the voice wasn't that unfamiliar to the black magician either, since he turned around to the direction where the voice came from and recognized the woman who spoke. He called her by her name: "Lunagel?"

The magicians of the five colors said "Rin?" simultaniously, but were still surprised to hear the black magician call her by her proper name, or even to hear that he knows her at all.

"Didn't I tell you to stop practicing all that?" Rin said to him.

"You did." he answered, "But you also said that there were others who might be misusing this magic as well. So I kept practicing it in case somebody does. I also took the liberty to learn some other arts, while I was at it."

"So now you've become a magician that can revive the dead!" Rin tried to make it sound like a bad thing.

"Among other things." he replied, as if there was nothing unusual to it, "Unfortunately, I just got to deal with that whole bunch that wouldn't even know how to spell the first letter of 'necromancy'. They'd wish the fate of the living would lie in their hands."

None of them knew how to act now.

"So what are you doing now?" Rin asked concerned.

"That I can't say, unless I want to risk getting them involved with this." he said as he was about to turn around, "It was nice to see you again after so long, Lunagel."

"Wait!" she stopped him from turning around, "Can't you tell me your name?"

Not one of the other eight understood how she could even know this guy, without even knowing his name.

"For now," he answered, "call me Abyszard."

And then he left.

Once he was out of sight, Isamu was the first to talk: "Lunagel! You know him?!"

"Yes." she answered, "I do."

**THE END**


End file.
